[Sca-cooks] Gorditas was New snack treat OT OP

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

On Sep 6, 2009, at 8:28 PM, otsisto wrote:
>  Wow, someone who doesn't eat at Taco Bell. :)
>  The TB gorditas have been around for quite a while. They are "tacos"
>  made with flat blead instead of reg. taco shells
>
>  http://www.tacobell.com/chickenranchgordita/

I was forced to eat in one *once*. I was getting a ride to a Ren Fair 
late Friday night (we worked there) and the family giving us a ride 
seemed *like* Taco Hell. Being hungry i ordered something... so i 
picked out some packets of sauces - my god! they all tasted like 
syrup! Ordinary catsup is too sweet for me - i buy *unsweetened* 
"UnKetchup" (no corn syrup, sugar, honey, or fruit juice).

So these supposedly "hot" sauces tasted to me like *very* slightly 
chili flavored syrup. Patooey! Once was one time too many!

Adamantius replied:
>  Yeah, I'm aware of the basic concept, and see television commercials
>  and such, and there's a Taco Bell three blocks or so from my apartment
>  building, but between what I read about them in Fast Food Nation and
>  various other sources, and the fact that, like many of the now-surviving
>  fast food chains across the US, they didn't exist in my city until fairly
>  recently.

After reading "Fast Food Nation", the only one i will tolerate is 
In-and-Out Burger (a West Coast chain), although i ignore all the 
Christian messages encoded on the paper cups and wrappers.

They actually slice the potatoes into fries right there! And when you 
know the not-so-secret code, you really *can* get it your way (to 
paraphrase some other fast food burger chain):
http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp
And as far as i can tell, their milk shakes are actually made from 
ice cream, rather than artificially flavored sweetened hydrogenated 
vegetable fat "cremey" vaguely dairy product served in other fast 
food chains.

Not that i eat there often, although it is several times a year.

My consort used to have us stop at Mickey D's on the way to or from 
events - i would stay in the car because the smell ancient grease was 
revolting.

Now we drop by In-and-Out on Sunday for lunch on the way home from an 
event (he works Saturdays so he only goes to a few per year). It was 
amusing one time... we were still in garb and we went into one north 
of where we live. We ordered and sat down at a table waiting for our 
numbers to be called. The lady at the table next to us picked up her 
purse and clutched it to her bosom for as long as she and her party 
(2 others IRCC) were there. My consort does more or less late 12th c 
- but he'd put his jeans on (so he wasn't in revealing trews and 
hose) and removed his belt, so he was in a basically knee-length 
tunic. I was in my basic camping garb - a long loose pale grey 14th 
c. Egyptian tunic (not that anyone in the In-and-Out would know that) 
and a head-hugging cap (i wear such things almost daily in my 
"mundane" life). So we looked a bit odd, but i didn't think we looked 
as scary as some of the young males in there.

>  I STR the non-local fast food chains in New York City when I was a kid
>  consisted of White Castle, Nathan's (hey, it's Coney Island, after
>  all), a hamburger chain called Wetson's. Then there was a [Swiss or
>  Austrian] wurst chain called ZumZum, Chock-Full-O'-Nuts coffee houses,
>  the NYC-specific Papaya King, Grey's Papaya, a million Sabrette hot
>  dog carts, and lots and lots of pizzerias, all mom-and-pop-type
>  operations, and all, bar none, monumentally better than the national
>  chains.

Hey, don't forget the old Orange Julius (of blessed memory)! I used 
to suck down a lot of those back in the late 60s when i lived in 
Manhattan.

>  I think the first McDonald's in Manhattan probably opened in the late
>  60's, and I became aware of it maybe ten years later, when I was in
>  high school.

I was in junior high when the first one opened in an unincorporated 
town right next to my north of Chicago suburb. I think it was late 
fall 1960. I was wearing a favorite black wool skirt and vest. Mom 
drove me and younger brother there. I was drinking my chocolate milk 
shake and the car stopped more suddenly than i was prepared for. I 
ended up with a lot of milk shake in my skirt - i quickly pulled the 
hem up to hold it so it wouldn't go all over the back seat. Ah, the 
days before lids on to-go cups.

>  Of all the chains that have made various sacrifices in quality to favor
>  a product line allowing for the cheapest and least-skilled labor
>  imaginable, Taco Bell is, AFAIK, really the only one to actively boast
>  of having no real kitchen to speak of, and no actual cooking
>  facilities other than things like microwaves, in the majority of their
>  retail locations.

And they taste like it!
-- 
Someone sometimes called Urtatim